by Rye Hart
His hips jerked in response against my touch. The pleasure inside me climbed higher and higher until my peak came bursting over me. I felt Gabriel groan hard against my right breast, biting down there to muffle the noise.
Fuck. Sweat poured down the back of my neck as I gazed up at the dark ceiling of the booth. The sound of chatter and laughter washed back over me. I swallowed thickly as I gathered my senses. A conflict of emotions filled me as Gabriel sat back suddenly to grasp at his head with a flushed face.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, shaking his head at me. “I took advantage of—”
“You didn’t take advantage of me,” I whispered back, tugging my dress down to cover myself. “I didn’t tell you to stop. I’m sorry.”
We both stared at each other, completely at a loss of what to do exactly. Gabriel was the first one to slide out of the booth, with a troubled frown tugging at his lips. He paused to look at me as he parted the red curtain.
“I’m sorry, Penny,” he said. “I have to go.”
He quickly walked away, leaving me there to wonder what the hell had just happened between the two of us.
CHAPTER SEVEN - GABRIEL
The pounding in my head had little to do with the previous night when I woke to the sound of Neil’s children running down the hallway. After last night, I couldn’t trust myself to go back to the condo. Not after what had transpired so quickly and heatedly with Penny.
Penny fucking Marshall.
Had I really fingered my daughter’s best friend in a nightclub like some sleaze?? I rolled over with a groan to stare up at the shadows dancing across the ceiling. It was still early, judging from the darkness outside, but Neil’s kids were already up and playing before the start of school. I needed to take a long cold shower to get rid of this feeling that lingered inside of me. It was the same damn feeling that had prompted me to kiss Penny in the first place.
It had felt fucking amazing; Penny’s hand on my erection through my pants, stroking with confidence and ease. The feel of her tight and heated flesh on my fingers.
I felt my dick harden against the sheets and blankets at the memory of it replaying in my mind. I threw an arm over my eyes in frustration. I had no idea how I was going to deal with this one. Normally, I would’ve walked away without a single damn regret in my head. I didn’t care much for relationships these days, but this had been Penny. My daughter’s best friend.
Hot guilt coursed through me all over again when I reached down to brush my fingers against my erection. This was the only way that I could concentrate again. I needed a release to be able to function.
I let my eyes slipped closed in pleasure while I stroked myself to the memory of Penny’s warm and wet clit against my fingers. I heard her pants and moans in my ear as I had coaxed an orgasm from her. I imagined my hand was her luscious mouth, taking me in and sucking me until I exploded down her slender throat. My orgasm crashed over me, and I shot warm jets of cum over my own stomach, trying my hardest not to imagine how good it would feel to release myself inside of Penny.
Afterward, I stared up at the ceiling with a pounding heart while half-listening to Neil converse with his wife downstairs. I needed to do something, now that I had crossed the line. I needed to talk to Penny to make sure that she was all right. I could still picture the wide-eyed and horrified expression on Penny’s face when I had backed out of that booth quickly to call Neil for a place to crash for the night.
I took a cold shower in the guest bathroom across the hallway. Toys from the kids were scattered around the bathroom floor. I showered quickly before getting dressed in the same clothes from the previous night. I texted my driver to let Alyssa know that I needed a fresh pair of clothes so that he could meet me at work before the rest of my employees arrived. I didn’t want any more talk going around the office, and showing up in the same rumpled clothes with an obvious hangover was one way to spur the rumors on.
“You look like hell,” Neil commented when I managed to make it down the stairs without tripping on a single toy. “What the hell happened to you last night?”
“I don’t even want to talk about it,” I said with a grimace. “Is there any coffee?”
“Coming right up.”
I followed Neil through the chaos of the living room where his children were currently gathered in front of the television. They greeted me with cheerful smiles as I walked by them with a strained looked. Michelle looked up from where she was cooking bacon in a large skillet over the stove.
“Good morning,” she said. “How are you feeling, Gabriel?”
The smell of bacon made my stomach twist with nausea. I forced myself to sit down at the kitchen island to be polite. I nodded gratefully at Neil as he poured me a cup of hot black coffee that smelled heavenly.
“I feel like my head is going to burst open,” I said. “Do you have any Tylenol?”
“Of course. I’ll grab some from the bathroom for you.”
Michelle squeezed my shoulder in passing when she walked by me to the bathroom. I sipped at my coffee while I waited for my driver to text me back.
“So, are you going to tell me what happened last night?” Neil asked. “I mean, I’ve seen you get drunk once before, but not like this. I had to carry your ass up the stairs and put you to bed.”
I grimaced at the memory of it. I could remember hitting another bar on the way over to Neil’s house to have a couple of shots in an attempt to numb the guilt of what happened. Everything after that was a dark blur of Neil dragging me up the stairs with muttered curse words coming out of his mouth.
“Thanks man and I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me last night but I’d like to just forget the entire evening.”
“So you’re not going to tell me what happened that made you crawl into a bottle of whiskey?” Neil asked again.
“You would be right about that. We need to get to the office soon, though. I want to go over everything that we are going to present to the government. I want it to be perfect.”
“We’ll make sure it’s good to go. I doubt that you have to worry about Jack Miller.”
I laughed darkly as I took another long sip. “That’s the thing about him. You don’t feel like you have to worry about him, but he’ll steal your ideas and wife in a heartbeat. He pretends to be average so you don’t worry about him, then he sneaks right up on you. ”
“Sounds very clever.” He eyed my disheveled clothes. “Your driver is bringing you clothes from the condo, right?”
“He should be. I told him to wake Alyssa up to go through my closet. She knows what I like to wear to work.”
We drove thirty minutes through thick traffic and cold winter air to find my driver waiting patiently in the parking lot. He handed me a set of clothes that Alyssa had picked out for me before leaving us to enter the office. I changed quickly in my office, just in time for the rest of the office staff to arrive for the start of their shifts.
The next two hours passed by me in a surreal blur, filled with a throbbing headache and a shit tone of guilt. I didn’t want to deal with anything, but I gritted my teeth through the PowerPoint presentation my team had made with my notes. It wasn’t until nearly eleven in the morning when one of my receptionists came by to tell me that there was a visitor waiting for me in the front lobby of the office.
“Who?” I asked grumpily while I followed her down the hallway. “This person better be damn important because—”
I stopped short when I recognized my ex-wife standing in my office lobby. The years had not been kind, judging from the wrinkles lining her face and the overall exhausted look she had as she looked at me with a timid smile. She was dressed in an expensive pencil skirt suit that hugged her tightly. Gray streaked her dark hair that was pulled back in a clip.
Coupled with my fucked up night, I felt a deep-seated anger start to brew all over again. I crossed my arms to gaze at her coldly.
“What are you doing here, Michelle?” I asked. “Does Jack know you’re here?�
�
“He knows that I’m here,” Michelle said. “He’s parked safely around the block. He figured you’d rather put a bullet in him than me.”
“That’s debatable.”
Michelle sighed as she pulled out a manila envelope from her brief case. “I didn’t come here to argue with you. I just wanted to drop this off.”
I eyed the envelope warily when she offered it. “Drop what off?”
“Papers for a lawsuit,” she replied. “We’re aware of your algorithm for the new consumer spending predictions. I believe it follows our own, so I personally told the lawyer that I would happily drop this off with you.”
“Very nice of you,” I said darkly. I snatched the envelope from her hand. “But I think you’ve forgotten who stole what from who.”
She just shrugged and looked at me. “How is Alyssa?”
I stopped short at the question. I twisted back to look over at Michelle, who had yet to move. I tried to read the expression on her face, but she was utterly devoid of emotion. My ex-wife had become a stranger to me over the years. Just the same way she had become to Alyssa, who didn’t even consider her a mother.
“You don’t deserve to know how our daughter is doing,” I said icily. “In case you forgot, I am the one who has been raising her. Not you.”
I didn’t wait for a reply. I stopped to tell the office staff to make sure she left before I retreated back to my office to call Alyssa.
“Where are you?” I asked, listening to the wind on the other end of the phone. “It sounds like you are outside.”
“I am outside. I’m doing some Christmas shopping for Penny.”
“Penny isn’t with you? She’s at the condo?”
“Sleeping, the last time I checked,” Alyssa said. “What’s wrong, Dad? You sound pissed off.”
Pissed off didn’t even begin to cover it. Now that I knew Penny was back at the condo alone, I wanted to take advantage of the situation to talk to her about last night.
“Just a long day,” I replied. “I’ll see you at home.”
I left the office with the excuse of needing to get some lunch. I arrived at the condo thirty minutes later to find Penny awake and sitting on the living room couch with a laptop propped up on her knees. The long strands of her blonde hair were still damp from a shower. She was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, and I couldn’t deny that pang of desire going through me again. She looked up at me nervously when I came into the living room.
“We need to talk about last night,” I said. “I’m sorry for—”
Penny held up a hand as she closed her computer to set it on the couch next to her. “We don’t need to talk about it,” she said, rising up from the couch to face me. “It’s honestly okay. It was a one-time thing, right? We were both pretty drunk.”
Something about that last sentence settled hard in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t like the sound of it. I stood in front of her on the cusp of doing the right thing by walking away, but also wanting to cave in to that desire spreading through me again. I could see the same conflict flickering in Penny’s eyes as she swallowed visibly.
“Just a one-time thing?” I asked.
She blinked in surprise. I surged forward to clasp the side of Penny’s neck and tilt her head upwards. I kissed her long and hard, relishing in her sweet lips underneath mine. She kissed me back with a soft moan of relief while her arms wrapped around my shoulders.
CHATPER EIGHT - PENNY
I couldn’t shake the feeling of Gabriel’s lips on mine. Even if every fiber of my being was yelling to get away, that this wasn’t right, and yet it felt so perfect at the same time. He tasted delicious, of winter air and coffee. His strong hands were cupping the sides of my neck tenderly as he kissed me passionately.
The intensity of it all shook me to the core. I had been imagining this since coming home from the club last night. I couldn’t get rid of the memory of Gabriel’s lips pushing up against mine, or how his hands felt on my body as he had given me the best orgasm of my life with just his fingers. I had to try very hard not to think about what his cock could do to me.
Nerves had crashed over me all morning, though, when Alyssa told me that her father had gone to stay at a friend’s house for the night. She had no idea what had happened, and I planned to keep it that way. I didn’t want to let this ruin our friendship after gaining it back after all these years, but at the same time, I couldn’t tear my lips away from Gabriel’s as he continued to kiss me as if he was thirsty for something.
He kissed me with expertise that left me completely helpless in his hands. My lungs burned for air, but it was the confusion blossoming in my chest that forced me to push myself away from him. I gasped for breath as I took a few step backs to put some distance between us.
“We-we can’t do this,” I said, alarmed by how easy it had been for Gabriel to unhinge me. “You’re right, we can’t. God, Penny, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. You are just doing damn beautiful. But no, we can’t do this. I promise you, it won’t happen again,” Gabriel said, standing to walk over to the wall of windows and stare over the city.
I nodded mutely at him right as the front doors to the condo opened, followed by the sound of Alyssa’s heels clicking on the tiled floor.
“Penny? So, I stopped by Victoria’s Secret again and—” Alyssa stopped short when she realized that her father was standing in the living room. “Oh, Dad. I thought you were at the office. You just called me nearly thirty minutes ago.”
I glanced over at Gabriel with a pounding heart. He had called to see if I was alone. I could read the expression on his face before it went blank when he looked over at Alyssa.
“I had to come home for the afternoon,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion. “There was something at work that I needed to talk to you about.”
Alyssa blinked a few times in surprise. “Talk to me about? Like what?”
“Like your mother.”
Those three little words brought a thick and awkward silence. I quickly gathered my laptop from the couch to give them privacy to talk. I knew from Alyssa that her biological mother was a painful subject that she rarely talked about with her father. They normally pretended that she didn’t exist, just like the way she’d done with them for a majority of Alyssa’s life.
“I’ll give you both some privacy,” I said, passing by Alyssa who set a few shopping bags down on the floor. “I’ll be in the guest room.”
“You can stay here,” Alyssa said. “You don’t have to leave us alone.”
I caught Gabriel’s troubled stare over the top of Alyssa’s head. “It’s okay. Your dad wants to talk to you.”
A frown tugged at Alyssa’s mouth as she took in my full lips and flushed cheeks. She glanced over at Gabriel, who turned around to gaze out the windows again.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “What’s wrong with the both of you?”
“Nothing is wrong,” I said hurriedly. “Come find me after you’re done talking to your dad. We can go get some coffee later.”
I walked down the hallway in the direction of the guest room. Closing it behind me with my foot, I sank back against the door with my laptop clutched closely to my chest. I let out a trembling breath.
“Holy fucking shit,” I gasped. “What the hell is happening?”
I ran a trembling hand through my hair, and I walked across the room to set my computer down on the bed before collapsing on it. I sucked in a deep breath as I tried to keep control over my racing heart. If I hadn’t pulled away, there was no doubt what would’ve happened with Gabriel. Neither one of us seemed to understand the pull between us; even though we knew it couldn’t happen.
It couldn’t happen. At all. This sort of thing would destroy Alyssa in the process if she knew that I had nearly let things go too far between her father and me. Still, the ache between my thighs was almost unbearable.
I slid my hand down over my flat belly and under the thin fabric of my sweatpants.
I spread my legs slightly and parted my tender folds with my fingers, feeling the thick wetness at my core. I sighed softly as I sank a finger into myself and imagined it was Gabriel’s thick member. I stroked deep inside myself a few times before pulling out and spreading my juices over my swollen clit. I rubbed myself in small, quick circles until I came, biting my lip so I didn’t scream. I lay still for a few moments afterward, trying to slow my breathing back to normal. Now that I had relieved the ache, I felt confident that I could avoid Gabriel and any more awkward situations.
The door to my bedroom opened thirty minutes later when I was absently scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed. I caught sight of the pale look on Alyssa’s face, and a stab of fear went straight through me. She sat down on the edge of my bed with a numb expression on her face.
“What is it?” I asked, closing my computer. “Alyssa?”
“My mother is here in Chicago,” Alyssa said. “That’s why my father came home. She came by his office to serve some papers, to tell him that she is suing him for something to do with his work.”
I let out a relieved breath before scooting close to sit next to her on the edge of the bed.
“She’s trying to sue him?”
“Something about copyright issues,” Alyssa mumbled, shaking her head. “I never realized how much of a bitch my mom is until now. She didn’t even want to come into the city to see me, you know?”
“She hasn’t been a part of your life since you were a baby. She doesn’t deserve to know what is going on in your life.”
“It still hurts, though,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “I just wish she would stay away for good and stop torturing my dad. I know it broke him when she left and that’s why he’s never remarried, or even dated much. He’s given his whole life to me, and as much as I appreciate that, he deserves not to hurt all the time.”
